I loved creating this piece. The ‘construction’ of the cottage was the most enjoyable part of the process but I struggled a lot with the landscaping surrounding the building. It works but is not what I really envisioned…..

Last September I had the chance to return to the west coast of Ireland and visit my ancestor’s cottage once more. I took countless photos and recently picked one for one more possible art quilt.

This time I decided to deal with my foibles on those bushes up front. Before even cutting a full size muslin backing, I began experimenting with portraying those grasses.

Beginning with some greens for a background, I began cutting shapes to lay over it. The approach held some promise so I continued to experiment.

Slowly I have been adding to the complexity of the grasses. I still have a way to go in tweaking this technique, but you can see from the three photos below the potential of layering mixtures of fabrics cut in random patterns.

Which brings me to last Sunday morning when someone on a morning talk program did a brief piece on a current show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Entitled “Henri Matisee: The Cut-Outs”, it is a presentation of works by Matisse later in his life – all cut out from paper. Even before Matisse turned to creating solely in paper, he often used cut outs to arrange the composition of his paintings I had to smile. I felt a special kinship with this amazing artist. I have always admired his work…undoubtedly in studying it, without consciously realizing it, I was probably absorbing some of his approach. Here is just one example of his brilliance with cut paper that I found on the web from the Fondation Beyeler Museum.

ALGUE BLANCHE SUR FOND ROUGE ET VERT, 1947

That Sunday morning program also mentioned a chapel in southern France that Matisse designed later in life and thought it was the crowning glory of his work. That sent me searching a bit on the web. The chapel is the Chapelle du Rosaire and it is pristine. You can find some photos here but, better yet, I found a video from the BBC Modern Masters series in 2010, in which Alastair Sooke visits the Chapelle du Rosaire. It is really worth watching.

Where my own experimentation with grasses will ultimately lead is yet uncertain. At this point, I know enough to move on to attending to other areas of my future piece, gathering fabrics and playing with nuances. I will keep you posted in the coming weeks. 🙂

Fused appliqué with free motion quilting/thread painting and a bit of jewelry wire.

This quilt depicts the remnants of a cottage on the West Coast of Ireland in Bunlough, Devlin North, County Mayo. The cottage was still standing two years ago when my cousin took a photo of it. It figures prominently in my family history and why my grandmother moved to the U.S.